Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs last month. And if that wasn't bad enough, workers also saw their weekly wages fall, suggesting Americans will have little appetite to spend and the economy's road to recovery will be bumpy.

All told, it appears the nation's unemployment rate is well on its way to 10 percent or higher, as many economic experts have predicted.

In Southern California, 10 percent unemployment is already old news. In May, Los Angeles County's jobless rate hit a new high of 11.6 percent, while the state posted a reading of 11.5 percent.

Some local communities reported May jobless rates that were even higher, including Industry (18.8 percent), South El Monte (13.6 percent) and Montebello (12.7 percent).

The latest reported rise in the nation's unemployment rate - from 9.4 percent in May to 9.5 percent in June - wasn't as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent.

But it still wasn't good.

Nancy D. Sidhu, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., put it this way:

"The message is that the economy is getting worse - but it's getting worse less rapidly than it did over the winter," she said. "We're still digging our way down into a hole ... just not as fast."

Jess Diaz Trucking Inc. in La Mirada grappled with the economic downturn during the opening quarter of 2009.

"From January to March it was just dead," said Dimas Diaz Jr., the company's vice president. "We were just kind of treading water. But now it's picking up again because our main business is shipping fruit. We'll see where it goes after September. That'll be the real test."

Jess Diaz Trucking has so far managed to avoid layoffs, but Peck Road Truck Center in Industry hasn't been as fortunate.

"We've had to lay off 20 employees over the last year," Jeff L. Jennings, the dealership's general manager, said recently. "That was a tough thing to do."

The business is working to reduce its labor rates on service for vehicles to help attract customers and prevent layoffs of mechanics, the company said.

Sidhu said businesses across the board are doing everything they can to reduce operating costs.

"What we're hearing from businesses is that they don't want to spend any money - period," Sidhu said. "They've had sales fall, especially if they are somehow tied to construction. And if the revenues aren't coming in, they're doing whatever they can to conserve."

Labor is the biggest expense for most businesses, and that's often where the reductions occur, she said.

"They are laying off their temporary workers and putting some of the ones who remain on short time," she said. "They're working less than 40 hours and the companies are pro-rating their salaries. Instead of cutting 25 percent of the workers, they might cut 25 percent of their hours."

Anna M. Sauceda, president of Associated Construction Services Group in Whittier, said the latest jobless numbers didn't exactly come as a shock.

"They don't surprise me but it's still disheartening how it impacts communities, not just here in California but across the country," she said. "But we're hopeful. We're trying to give people some positive energy."

President Barack Obama, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he is "deeply concerned" about unemployment and conceded that too many families are worried about "whether they will be next" to suffer an economic blow.

June's payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected and average weekly earnings dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.

All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.

Christopher Thornberg, a principal with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles, said people put too much stock in the previous unemployment report which was released last month.

"The biggest surprise to me was not so much what happened this month, but how people took last month's numbers so optimistically," he said. "One month does not a trend make. These numbers bounce around a lot ... they're twitty."

Still, Thornberg offered some hope.

"The economy is starting to heal and we're beginning to see things solidify," he said. "But we're not out of the woods yet."

The Associated Press and staff writer Ryan Carter contributed to this story.